[JayG]

Dynamite - works every time and the plants go like a bomb. 

[Growster...]

Mum's way - pencil, a quick prayer, and a steady hand to pick up all the bits quickly...

And have the hole in the receiving pot ready made too...

[angelavdavis]

I am also a poker - but I use the end of my Poundland dibber.  You don't stand a chance of having a pencil in my house with my 5 year old (drawing mad) daughter!

I was thinking at the weekend how I would buy a few more dibbers if they had them back in stock!

[shoozie]

my old faithful stainless steel widger - probably my favourite, most used tool

[pink aubergine]

I agree with the squeeze to loosen the compost, release the roots underneath if they are all tangled together, but then I use a pronged plastic dibber type tool, the pronged end about the same size size as a teaspoon handle, to remove the whole plug without breaking it up. I believe that Wilkinsons sell them.

[ISL]

A little note to say thank you all for your advice, its greatly appreciated.

[gavinjconway]

Mum has hit the nail on the head - root growth is the critical factor. If you have good root growth anything really works - squeeze n eeze and out they pop. If the root growth is still small you need to use a fork or flat cake spatula (stolen from the kitchen) and ease them out by loosening all 4 sides first.

I'm going to cut my sweetcorn modules into strips of 4 so I don't disturb the roots trying to get them out of a 24 tray...